Whole Foods recently announced all of its more than 280 stores now have grass-fed beef for sale, but grass-fed evangelists who operate one Missouri ranch have been selling the stuff to the natural food chain since 2007.

Rain Crow Ranch, in Doniphan, Missouri (map), already has its beef for sale in St. Louis restaurants -- even warranting a mention in this review of CityGarden's Terrace View. But as regular Whole Foods customers already know, the southern Missouri ranch has had its beef in meat cases there for years.

Kate Klotz, a rep for Whole Foods, says Rain Crow Ranch beef is now on sale in the chain's 31 Midwestern stores.
The ranch is operated by Mark and Patricia Whisnant, the latter of whom is president of the American
Grassfed Association and a veterinarian.

The Whisnant family (Mark and Patricia, their three sons and four
employees) look after 1,200 head of cattle, according
to this report.

In a blog post from 2008, Whisnant writes of telling the "grassfed
story" to new audiences of commercial buyers and consumers alike, and
the new roles she took on to do so.

Yes, we are farmers and our favorite place is on the farm
but this week we will be wearing our marketing and cooking hats as we
talk the grass fed story in Boston. Producers who take the plunge to
market their products direct must often assume the role of the jobs that
are usually in the middle between the farm and table.